President Obama sent Congress a budget request Monday that would increase federal spending on many higher education programs and also aims to reap savings for the government by changing some student loan and repayment options.
The administration’s budget features several big-ticket policy proposals that have been announced in recent weeks or previously proposed. Among them: free community college for some students, streamlining higher education tax breaks and a bonus grant program to reward colleges that graduate large numbers of low-income students.
Many such proposals in the budget are largely aspirational in a Republican-controlled Congress with little appetite for more federal spending. But some proposals in the budget, especially those surrounding simplifying and streamlining student aid programs, may well get some traction, as they dovetail with similar efforts by Senator Lamar Alexander, the Republican who chairs the Senate education committee.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/03/obama-seeks-boost-higher-education-spending-and-proposes-some-loan-reforms-have